Rich Hofmann

DAILY NEWS SPORTS EDITOR

Rich Hofmann arrived at the Daily News in 1980 for a job whose status was officially designated as "full-time, temporary." A senior at Penn at the time, he was hired to fill in on the copy desk during a staff illness. The notion of him covering the Eagles or being a columnist did not exist in anyone's imagination. It was supposed to be six weeks and out, but he never left. It is only one of the reasons why so many people have concerns about him as a potential house guest.

The question to DeSean Jackson on Wednesday afternoon was simple enough: compare the balls thrown by Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb. The answer was as you might expect.

"It's a little different," Jackson said. "Donovan has a lot of velocity on his football. Kolb throws a great ball, too, but sometimes it's just a little bit easier. Wide receivers, we can't get caught up in that. We just have to go out there and catch the football."

Jackson, the NFC's special teams player of the week after his 85-yard punt return touchdown on Sunday at Carolina, was asked to do the compare and contrast thing a number of times between McNabb and Kolb, and he did his best to avoid the questions. McNabb is unlikely to play Sunday because of a broken rib, although the Eagles have not ruled him out. In his absence, Kolb will get his first start as a pro.

McNabb has a super-strong arm -- to the point where receivers over the years have sometimes struggled with the velocity of some of his throws. Kolb's arm is not as strong but is viewed by most people as strong enough. You would think there would be some adjustment for the receivers, but Jackson really didn't want to go there. He just wanted to do platitudes, and to talk about the win last week.

"The biggest thing was, we were able to go into somebody else's home field and play together as a team," he said. "Anytime it happens like that, it's a tremendous thing to have. We just have to come home in front of our crowd, with the fans going crazy, and it should be fun. It's something we're looking for."

Regardless of the quarterback?

"As a receiver, as an offense, we can't sit there and get caught up with that," Jackson said. "At the end of the day, we still have a job to do, and that's to go out there and put points up on the board, score, and just play together as an offense. It shouldn't change anything we do."